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Alpine farming and pasturing at high altitudes in the Alps has created one of the most species-rich and diverse landscapes in Europe. In order to fully understand, appreciate and protect these habitats it is essential to learn about their history and origin. Until the present day, alpine farming provides essential additional food sources for livestock of farmers in the alpine valleys. Based on written sources, historians are able to track alpine farming back to the Middle Ages. Other approaches from different fields in science, however, can look back even further in search of evidence for alpine farming. This interdisciplinary literature review therefore aims to summarize the scientific work that has been done in different fields of science such as Archaeology, Palynology, Pedoanthracology and linguistic research in order to address the question of the beginning of alpine farming in the Alps. With the discovery of remains from alpine dairy huts, archaeological studies show that there is definite proof of alpine farming beginning in the Bronze Age (2200–800 BC) in different parts of the Alps. Archaeological and palynological data as well as linguistic findings from many different studies and study areas arrived at the same conclusions. Palynological studies found indicators for high-altitude pasture use even earlier, beginning from 4500 BC. The exact type or intensity of this pasture use though remains unclear. In order to confirm these findings, more archaeological research of these areas would be necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various studies using pollen stratigraphies have demonstrated significant correlations between Holocene plant diversity, climate, and human activities. Studies that have analyzed longer Holocene timescales tend to discuss cultural data very superficially. This is remarkable because detailed insights into past human activities may be key to gain an understanding of the observed trends in biodiversity. This study aims to reconstruct and explain spatio-temporal trends in past plant diversity (alpha, temporal, and spatial beta diversity) by integrating data on vegetation dynamics, human subsistence economy, and land-use patterns. The landscape of Northwest France during the greater part of the Iron Age and the start of the Roman period (600 BC–AD 100) is selected as a case study. In total, 30 high-quality pollen-stratigraphical sequences allow for the reconstruction of the main long-term trends in plant diversity and more generally of the changing fabric of the landscape. Additionally, increasingly detailed images of the Iron Age rural landscape are available because of a steep increase in archaeological data (aerial photography, surveys, and excavations). These different types of data are integrated and used as input for a wider discussion on the relation between human activities and plant diversity. In general, the taxonomic richness increases steadily during the period under study. Some spatio-temporal differences are observed. The increasing richness values correspond with the growing impact of human activities on the landscape. Archaeologically documented land-use changes on smaller timescales are less clearly reflected in the richness values and vegetation dynamics, which might result from the (large-scale) research design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Annually laminated sediments of Lake Woserin in north-eastern Germany are investigated using sedimentological and palynological methods. They facilitate high-resolution reconstruction of environmental and land-use change during ca. 7000-4000 cal. BP. Between 6100 and 5800 cal. BP, changes in woodland composition and structure are evident which coincide with a change in subsistence strategy, that is, the adoption of animal husbandry. For the remaining period, eight phases of enhanced human impact (5750-5390, 5270-5150, 4890-4750, 4670-4600, 4520-4450, 4390-4350, 4250-4170 and 4070-3930 cal. BP) are identified. Hereby, the first phase relates to an opening of the landscape in connection with the adoption of large-scale, extensive cereal cultivation. Phases of decreased human impact are generally characterised by woodland regeneration. Over-regional comparison of the results reveals similar and synchronous fluctuation of human impact in the young moraine area of the south-western Baltic region and hints at a large-scale driver. In order to evaluate the role of environmental change for human activity, evidence for coinciding shifts in palaeoclimate records and their potential implication for human-environment interactions are discussed and generally support the idea that environmental changes played an important role for the cultural development during the Neolithic in Northern Germany. Hereby, climate change probably favoured the adoption of new subsistence strategies during the early Neolithic (6100-5350 cal. BP). Furthermore, the fluctuating human impact during Middle and Younger Neolithic (5350-4100 cal. BP) could indicate a socio-economic system susceptible for short-termed climatic fluctuation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present day distribution of Miombo savanna-woodland in Mozambique has been attributed to an expansion due to the clearing of original coastal forests through agriculture and use of fire. Here, we test this hypothesis using palaeoecological data from Lake Nhauhache, situated in the Vilankulo region. Our analysis shows that Brachystegia, one of the main constituents of the Miombo, has varied over time, and its variability seems to be driven by hydrological changes related to climatic variability rather than by land-use changes. The analyses show that Brachystegia was most common during ad 200–700 when a marshy forest/shrub community was dominant. After ad 700, this community changes to a dominance of Syzygium and Fagara linked to gradually rising water levels. Brachystegia remains in low abundance and fluctuating over time. From ad 1000, a general decline in trees/shrubs in favour of grasses concurs with an increase in grass pollen (possibly cereal) and charcoal, most probably as a result of farming activities. The decline in tree taxa was probably exacerbated by periodic droughts after c.ad 1200 as indicated by the diatom assemblage. In the period ad 1700 to late 1800, arboreal pollen is well represented, and this is concurrent with the diatom record suggesting high lake levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We reviewed literature in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, ethnobotany, palynology and ecology to try to determine the impacts of Native Americans as active and passive promoters of mast (nuts and acorns) and fruit trees prior to European settlement. Mast was a critical resource for carbohydrates and fat calories and at least 30 tree species and genera were used in the diet of Native Americans, the most important being oak (Quercus), hickory (Carya) and chestnut (Castanea), which dominated much of the eastern forest, and walnut (Juglans) to a lesser extent. Fleshy tree fruits were most accessible in human-disturbed landscapes, and at least 20 fruit- and berry-producing trees were commonly utilized by Native Americans. They regularly used fire and tree girdling as management tools for a multitude of purposes, including land clearing, promotion of favoured mast and fruit trees, vegetation control and pasturage for big-game animals. This latter point also applies to the vast fire-maintained prairie region further west. Native Americans were a much more important ignition source than lightning throughout the eastern USA, except for the extreme Southeast. First-hand accounts often mention mast and fruit trees or orchards in the immediate vicinity of Native American villages and suggest that these trees existed as a direct result of Indian management, including cultivation and planting. We conclude that Native American land-use practices not only had a profound effect on promoting mast and fruit trees but also on the entire historical development of the eastern oak and pine forests, savannas and tallgrass prairies. Although significant climatic change occurred during the Holocene, including the 'Mediaeval Warming Period' and the 'Little Ice Age', we attribute the multimillennia domination of the eastern biome by prairie grasses, berry-producing shrubs and/or mast trees primarily to regular burning and other forms of management by Indians to meet their gastronomic needs. Otherwise, drier prairie and open woodlands would have converted to closed-canopy forests and more mesic mast trees would have succeeded to more shade-tolerant, fire-sensitive trees that are a significantly inferior dietary resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollen analyses of a peat profile collected from Butterburn Flow, northern England have been used to reconstruct vegetation and land-use change from the late Neolithic (c. 3230 cal. BC) to the present day. ‘Wiggle-matching’ of 42 AMS 14C dates has enabled a precise (decadal scale) chronology to be established, and the results are interpreted within the context of previous studies of vegetation change in the area. Three late Neolithic-Bronze Age woodland clearance phases occurred, with the first beginning c. 2290 cal. BC. Cleared areas were utilized for pastoral and limited arable agriculture. Late Iron Age clearance and agricultural intensification began at Butterburn Flow c. 300 cal. BC; the peak period of clearance c. 90 cal. BC-AD 50 cal. was comparable in intensity with that in the fourteenth century AD. Farmland in the area was abandoned during the period c. AD 90ȁ3450 cal., contemporaneous with the Roman occupation of the region; Following Roman withdrawal, a resurgence of agriculture occurred. The timing of later periods of agricultural decline relate to climatic deterioration, political instability and disease in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sedimentary evidence spanning the last 3500 years from cores taken from the centre of Gormire Lake, Cleveland, northeast England, points to two periods of deforestation and catchment erosion. The first, mainly late Iron Age/Romano-British phase, began c. 200 BC and ended c. AD 600. The second began c. AD 1200, the time of early Monastic activity, and continued into the nineteenth century. The chronology for the core rests on [sup 137]Cs, [sup 210]Pb and [sup 14]C measurements and on the history of lead accumulation in the sediments. The majority of the AMS [sup 14]C dates are shown to be too old to varying degrees, depending on the source of the organic matter in the sediments. The record of vegetation change is derived from pollen analysis. Evidence for changes in sediment composition and source and for catchment erosion comes from magnetic measurements, element analyses using XRF, and organic biogeochemical analyses. There is a high degree of coherence between all these lines of evidence. Interpretation of the magnetic record is complicated as a result of the formation of biogenic magnetite by magnetotactic bacteria, especially during periods of minimal erosion, by the presence of the authigenic magnetic sulphide greigite and by probable magnetite dissolution. Despite these modifications to the magnetic mineral assemblage in the sediments, magnetic indications of catchment erosion are clearly distinguishable, especially in the record of the antiferromagnetic minerals haematite and goethite. Partial estimates of catchment erosion rates are presented, based on the evidence from the sediments from the deepest part of the lake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analysed pollen and charcoal in a lake-sediment core from Laguna Zoncho, a small mid-elevation lake in southernmost Costa Rica. The record provides evidence of 3000 years of human occupation, forest clearance, agriculture and fires in the area. Laguna Zoncho is located 2 km from the Las Cruces Biological Station, and results are relevant to understanding the likely extent of prehistoric disturbance within the premontane rain forests of this biological reserve. Pollen grains of Zea mays in the basal sediments of the Zoncho core constitute the oldest botanical evidence of maize cultivation in southern Costa Rica. The presence of maize pollen in almost every sample analysed indicates nearly continuous occupation of the lake basin for 3000 years. Charcoal abundances and percentages of pollen grains and spores of forest and disturbance taxa fluctuate strongly downcore, reflecting variable intensities of past human impact. Forest clearance and burning by indigenous people were most marked between 3240 and 460 cal. yr BP. Sediments deposited subsequently indicate forest regeneration and few, if any, fires. However, indigenous cultivation of maize continued on a small scale until European settlement in the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study focuses on the environmental history of the higher parts of the Småland Uplands, southern Sweden. Pollen analysis was conducted on gyttja from the small lake Avegöl, and an absolute chronology established based on AMS dates of terrestrial plant macrofossils. The area has been used for grazing from 3900 cal. BC to present, but cultivation of cereals was not introduced until c. 300 cal. BC. There have been two major periods of open landscape, cal. AD 0-500 and cal. AD 1300-c. 1900. The first period was characterized by pastures and shifting cultivation in both till and sand areas. The second period was characterized by pastures, meadows, permanent arable fields and slash-and-burn cultivation, and it was mainly restricted to till areas. Cal. AD 500-1000 was a period of regression and reforestation, when extensive wood pasturage was the only agrarian land-use practised in the area. All dramatic environmental changes, except for the spruce invasion AD 900-1100, are assigned to agricultural land-use, while some slow and gradual changes are explained as the combined effect of land-use and natural processes. The classical Ulmus decline at c. 4000 cal. BC is not detected in the pollen diagram, but there is a significant decline in Ulmus dated to 2800-2600 cal. BC. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Pollen-stratigraphic data and radiocarbon dates are presented for a full Holocene series of sediment cores obtained from a high-level site in the Appennino Parmense, northern Italy. Three 'marker' horizons are identified on the basis of sediment changes and pollen stratigraphy, and the extent to which they indicate episodes of significant human interference in the local vegetation is discussed. The earliest (M1) is dated to around 6300 BP. From the pollen evidence, some form of human impact on the regional vegetation at this time is suspected, but there is no convincing archaeological evidence to support this. The pollen evidence from the second (M2: 5000-4000 BP) and third (M3: ca. 1400 BP) marker horizons is consistent with archaeological information in suggesting that the high parts of the Apennines, close to the tree-line, were subject to intense summer grazing during the late Neolithic through to the Copper Age, and the immediate post-Roman period. A review of archaeological and documentary evidence from the region is presented to demonstrate how an integration of these lines of research on the one hand, with pollen-stratigraphic studies on the other, may provide a better understanding of the pattern and intensity of land-use changes during the mid- to late-Holocene. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]